BROADFOOT, John Whiffing Richmond, MIEAust MIMechE MILocoE (1876-1959)
Born in Adelaide, South Australia on February 14, 1876 he was educated at Pulteney Grammar School in Adelaide. Broadfoot joined the Great Southern Railway operated by the WA Land Company in 1891 and then moved to the Government Railway as a fitter at Northam on September 28, 1897. Later that year he became a draughtsman in the Locomotive Branch at Fremantle. In 1901 he resigned and travelled widely to broaden his engineering experience visiting Great Britain, India, China and Japan.
On his return in 1906 he spent time in Collie undertaking coal analysis for the Government Railways.
In 1907 he married Mabel Annie Randell in Perth.
In 1916, on his application for membership of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers he gave his position as Acting Assistant Works Manager. Appointed Workshop Manager in succession to Ernest Evans in 1920, he assembled the L and P Class locomotives and was appointed the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Government Railway in 1929.
He supervised the design and construction of the MSA Garratt locomotives in 1930 and introduced the ‘Governor' class of diesel electric railcars, which were in 1937 8 the first of this type on Australian railways. He also oversaw the design and construction of the modified Pr Class locomotives in 1938-39.
The head of the Mechanical Engineering Branch during the difficult times of the depression, he gave evidence to the Royal Commissions on the State Railways in 1922, on the Coal Mining Industry in 1930 and 1933, and on the Bill for the Bulk Handling of Wheat in 1932. His published papers include ‘Locomotive progress on the Western Australian Railways, … development of a Garratt locomotive' JIEA 3, 1931, p27.
Broadfoot retired on December 31, 1939 and was succeeded by Frederick Mills. He had been President of the Railways and Tramways Institute for 12 years.
Broadfoot died at Mount Lawley on January 7, 1959.
References:
'RRC system of state railways' V&P WA1922‐3, 7;
'RRC coal mining in Western Australia' V&P WA 1930 3l, 21;
'RSC Bulk Handling Bill ' V&P WA 1932, A3;
'RRC Coal Mining Industry of Western Australia' V&P WA1933 2;
GUNZ p150;
M.T. Morley, personal communication 1990;
FITCH p54;
HAIEA;
Daily News 26.1.1934, p4;
West Australian 10.1.1940, p11.
